Interprofessional teamwork in stroke care

Ruth Harris

Sarah Sims

Flo Panel Coates

Elaine Maxwell

Posted 25 October 2018 - 12:04

This is the third in a series of six articles that aim to encourage nurse leaders to explore how to use research ﬁndings to improve practice and services where they work. The series focuses on research that has been funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and included in NIHR Dissemination Centre publications. The authors seek to relate the content directly to the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s code of professional standards of practice and behaviour, specifically the themes of practising safely and promoting professionalism and trust.

Picture: iStock

Introduction by Elaine Maxwell, clinical adviser at the National Institute for Health Research Dissemination Centre:

The NIHR Dissemination Centre aims to assist practitioners, managers and policy maker by summarising, contextualising and analysing research findings and presenting them as dependable, accessible, actionable information for those who need it.

In recent years, stroke care has been transformed, in part by changes to how care services are organised.

We brought together some of the research that has helped with this transformation in our themed review, Roads to Recovery.

One of the studies we included, Interprofessional Teamwork across Stroke Care Pathways: Outcomes and Patient and Carer Experience (Harris et al 2013), looks at how different professions work together and affect outcomes for people with stroke.

In this article, the lead researchers discuss their studies of how teamwork, or the lack of it, affects people who have had stroke and their families.

A chief nurse then reflects on the implications for providers of stroke care and the importance of whole-team visibility to achieve the best outcomes.